Let's Bust a Recap : Millard Fillmore

Hey, hey: time for another presidential biography and we're on unlucky #13, Millard Fillmore. 

Unlucky, you say? Yes. Yes, I do because Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President by Robert J. Rayback is in the running for the worst presidential biography I've read to date, and that includes Cheney's and Unger's horrifically biased bios on Madison and Monroe. Unfortunately, my dislike for this biography on Fillmore has less to do with the actual authorial content and more to do with the physical published book, but we'll get to that later. First let's talk about Millard Fillmore himself. 

Millard Fillmore was born January 7, 1800 (exactly 200 years to the day before my youngest sister-in-law). His parents were poor tenant farmers in upstate New York, and Millard was the second of their eight children. Fillmore was the very picture of a self-made man. Despite being born into extreme poverty, he worked diligently to get an education and eventually became a prominent lawyer in Buffalo, New York which is where he ultimately settled. He got engaged to Abigail Powers in 1819, but didn't actually marry her until 1826 after he finally was in a place in life to support a family. They had two children, a boy and a girl.

Fillmore was passionate about local and state politics and by far the most interesting part of his career dealt with his time at the local and state levels. His heart was obviously in New York even as he served in the highest office of the land, and after reading about him and Martin Van Buren, I've decided that New York politicians are their own special brand. He did also serve in the House of Representatives before being selected as Zachary Taylor's vice presidential candidate and then succeeding Taylor in the presidency upon Taylor's untimely death about a year and a half into his presidential term leaving Fillmore the two and a half years left to serve out his time as president. 

The defining event of Fillmore's presidency was easily the Compromise of 1850, and in particular Fillmore's defense of the Fugitive Slave Act within the Compromise. While Fillmore himself was against slavery, his understanding of the Constitution led him to believe that the federal government was precluded from taking an active role in ending the institution. His utmost desire was to preserve the Union and he considered that his foremost responsibility in carrying out the presidency. While it's easy to Monday morning quarterback this time in our nation's history and criticize the public men who didn't take a more active role in trying to end slavery, particularly the presidents immediately leading up to the Civil War, I think we have to take a harder look at the choices these men were faced with and realize it's a little more nuanced than, "Slavery is evil so every president that served while slavery was still a reality in our country must have been evil, too." Fillmore was the last president to achieve any sort of sectional peace with his presidency and while I wouldn't say that made him a good or effective president, it is something. 

Fillmore was the most Whig politician that actually got to serve as president, certainly more so than Harrison, Tyler, or Taylor, and after his presidency, the dying Whig party finally dissolved. Despite all their efforts to get Fillmore reelected in the 1852 presidential race, they failed. Fillmore did not particularly want to run again, but was very concerned about the preservation of the party and also about the potential for sectional discord if certain other candidates pressed their positions. Fillmore's time in national politics was most marked by his never-ending power struggle with New York boss Thurlow Weed and Weed's yes-man William Seward. Honestly, reading about their constant back-and-forth was exhausting, and their rivalry reminded me of every disgusting reality of politics. It's just always been bad, y'all. 

Fillmore was anxious about what to do after the presidency, publicly bemoaning the fact that retired presidents didn't get any kind of livable pension, and puzzling over what would be a fitting profession for an ex-president. He had settled on returning to his law profession in Buffalo, but the sudden death of his wife less than a month after he left office was a massive blow to him. Then a year later in 1854, his 22 year old daughter also suddenly died. He ended up running for president again in 1856, but when he lost to Buchanan, he considered his run in politics officially over. He then conveniently married an extremely wealthy widow in 1858, and the two of them became Buffalo celebrities hosting everyone who was anyone visiting upstate New York. 

Fillmore was the first president to live through the Civil War and for several years afterward. Shortly after the war began, he organized the "Union Continentals", a company in the home guard. While he still advocated the preservation of the Union, he was critical of Abraham Lincoln's leadership. 

One final and somewhat random thought on Millard Fillmore: he was considered by the ladies to be an extremely attractive man. Take a second to scroll back up and look at his picture. Do you see it?

All in all, Millard Fillmore wasn't a complete bore to read about, but he was poorly served by this 1959 Rayback biography. For one thing, Rayback just tried way too hard. Fillmore is consistently ranked by historians as one of our very worst presidents and Rayback's praise of him and attempt to save his reputation came off a bit desperate at times. He padded the biography with a lot of extraneous information that didn't add much to the portrait of Fillmore. On top of that, this book was littered with typos, errors, and editing that made it difficult to read. The use of footnotes as opposed to endnotes was distracting and aesthetically unappealing. And my biggest personal pet peeve: the 23rd chapter was labeled as chapter 25 in the table of contents AND at the head of the actual chapter. Who missed that?! I'll be the first to admit that my reading of this biography suffered from big gaps of time where I left it untouched, but ultimately, it just is not one of the better presidential biographies I've read. Millard Fillmore would be a great candidate for an updated and in-depth biography, but I don't see that happening any time soon.

Next up—and chances are good I'll actually get to him before the year is through—Franklin Pierce.